


And with this last symphony we sink

by Glowing_dimp_as_an_ember



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: At least that was the intention, M/M, Musician!Will Solace, Titanic AU, musician!Nico di Angelo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-02
Updated: 2016-12-02
Packaged: 2018-09-06 02:36:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8731477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glowing_dimp_as_an_ember/pseuds/Glowing_dimp_as_an_ember
Summary: Live a little. Maybe he would hear to his sister’s advice, not that he would ever tell her that straight to the face, of course, she didn’t need to know she had been right. He didn’t know it yet, but little was about to take a whole new different sense than what she originally intended.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I really, really, really hope this is considered somewhere near decent... If not, I apologize

Nico really didn’t like the idea of making this trip since the very first beginning, he couldn’t help but to feel his heart sinking as soon as he got to put a foot into the cruise’s main deck, the faint and soft sound the new wooden floor made underneath him doing everything but letting his anxiety levels down. He took a deep breath, his eyes quickly wandering around the area, air moving jackets and hats in a teasing manner, even though he was not completely certain of which was specifically the target: the naïve passengers that were currently entertaining themselves with unimportant topics of conversation or himself, whose stomach had become into an unbearable group of knots an twists, which only caused him to tighten his grip on the rather small bag that was carrying his precious violin, the last gift her late sister had given him, the last thing her fingers touched before they couldn’t feel anything at all.

The black haired wasn’t even sure why he had let his father and half-sister convince him to make his trip to New York City weeks before the audition, he didn’t think it was all that necessary but the girl with golden flashlights as eyes could be very persuasive when she wanted to and he was in great disadvantage against her pleading look, something that both of them were perfectly aware of. You have to learn to live a little, that’s what she had said to him every time the topic was a subject of conversation, something she had repeated before he took off to the harbor earlier than morning.

Live a little, that was easier said than done, especially now when he could barely concentrate on his line of thought with the annoying movement the waves were projecting into the ship. He wondered why people would find something like that relaxing, it made really hard for him to walk without tripping with his own feet, let alone clear his mind. The feeling of annoyance didn’t do anything but grow when he found someone bumping onto him, almost sending him to the hard floor and his bag through the air. The brown eyed looked up slightly to glare at the person who had run into him, sending him what Hazel liked to call an infamous death glare. But, when most beings would be scared in some level, a pair of eyes only looked back at him amused.

“Oh, sorry… I wasn’t really looking, I’m afraid. Is my first time on a ship like this.” The blond in front of him said, his glance not leaving his figure, a small but bright smile appearing on his features as he extended a hand towards him. “I’m Will, by the way.”

He usually wasn’t one to follow conversations, especially with people he had just seen…but he had a feeling about the person who kept looking at him expectantly. He hadn’t come here to make friends, to meet someone, this was just a mean of transport, just to take him where he needed to go. That didn’t prevent her sister’s words to echo on the hallways of his mind.

“Nico.” He replied, hesitantly grabbing the other’s hand, which he started shaking before letting go.

Live a little. Maybe he would hear to his Hazel’s advice, not that he would ever tell her that straight to the face, of course, she didn’t need to know she had been right.

He didn’t know it yet, but little was about to take a whole different sense than what she originally intended.

* * *

They spent most of their time together, well, at least when the blond wasn’t playing with the cruise’s band. Nico once asked him why he did it, since he wasn’t part of the crew, just a passenger like him, to which Will simply shrugged before grinning, saying that not only it did a good practice but it might as well cheer someone up.

The blue eyed was similar to him in that sense: it was almost impossible to see him without his instrument, the blond having a golden trumpet near him almost as if it were another limb, making it joyfully sound whenever he felt like the people around him were in need of a lift of spirit, as he liked to call it, playing random symphonies every ones in a while, improvising the rest of the occasions. Sometimes he asked Nico to play with him as he took noticed his violin a couple of minutes after their formal introduction, but the black haired always refused, the sound he could produce was mostly sad and melancholic while Will tried to make a less ethereal vision of happiness. He couldn’t bring himself to ruin that, not even if it were to be an accident.

He learned more and more about the other in the next couple of days: his favorite season, which color he liked the most, his family, where was he headed to. It turned out that they both were going to be in the same city for at least a couple of days before the blond had to make a small trip to a nearby town, he promised, however, that he would try to make it to Nico’s audition, even up to celebrating after all had been settle and done.

The black haired couldn’t help but to smile at the idea, an expression that was successfully captured with the flash of a camera.

* * *

He had been sleeping when all the commotion started, soon finding himself being dragged to the deck through the labyrinth underneath the surface, pushed through the halls by a large amount of people, some as confused as him, others as desperate as one could get when facing the unknown. The black haired wasn’t really sure when he did, but he found the time between his sleepiness to grab the violin resting near his bed, as if his life depended on it, he just couldn’t bear to leave it behind…it would be like leaving a part of him.

Nico could hear whispers as he make his way to the outside, muttering coming from everywhere, making it more than just simply confusing to catch what one person alone was saying but he believed he could grab the message after comparing the statements and stories that got to his ears, possibility that was reinforced when his pants entered in contact with a freezing liquid that was advancing in a hurry through the entirety of the place.

It had been pierced, the outside structure had been pierced and now the ship was sinking. The gigantic construction was sinking with them inside.

His eyes widened at the realization, cold sweat on his neck as a chill passed through his spine, meeting with every nerve of his body. This simply couldn’t be happening, it just couldn’t. He had promised he would write to Hazel as soon as he arrived to his final destiny, if he didn’t make it… His mind quickly changed its focus of attention as his glance ended focusing on a yellowish mob, hands on a shiny item, musical notes slowly coming from the large end opposite to his lips.

“Will, what are you doing?! We have to go!” Nico heard himself yelling at the other as he pushed his way towards him, who was standing over a wooden box, playing some scales to warm up to the sound.

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m practicing.” Will answered easily with a carefree smile on his face, once the black haired couldn’t get and, in all honesty, hadn’t all the time in the world to understand. How could he appear to be so calm? It was obvious that he knew what was happening, the people surrounding them both made the situation pretty hard to ignore, it was hard to think of anything else than the possible bad ending of all of this situation.

Nico bitted the inside of his cheek nervously before slowly taking his violin, placing it under his chin before slowly plucking on the strings, letting the sound reach to his ears, resulting in a raised eyebrow from his companion in besides him.

“Does… Does the offer still stands?” He asked somewhere nearly shyly as he lifted his bow slightly, the tip of it touching the side of the violin carefully, his eyes never leaving the blue pair staring back at him. The tension felt even more present between them, growing nonstop for a couple of seconds before dissipating with a smile and a playful elbowing.

“For you? Always, Neeks.” Will said, grin as wide as it had been when they first met and for a second, just a fraction of second, Nico allowed himself to forget what has happening around him, everything gone but the blue eyed next to him.

He gave him a nervous smile, a tint on fear present on his eyes as the shouts and screams did nothing but grow in desperation of the incertitude of the future. The blond quickly let his eyes wander around his surroundings before pecking his cheek, his teeth showing as his mouth parted open, his lips meeting the nozzle, blowing slowly some air, a soft melody starting to spread through the air, symphony that soon fused with the delicate vibrations of the stings, creating something new on their own, perfect in its own imperfection.

Nico closed his eyes, letting the sounds envelop him and take him away, transport him into an alternate reality, place and time. He wished some things would have turned out differently but, on the other side…he thought some would rather stay how they were now, there were some things that he would like to stay the same. Maybe in a different life…

He wasn’t sure when his libs had started to feel numb, when he stopped feeling the bow between his fingers nor when the cold air became nothing but a mere illusion.

All was meaningless except the darkness, it was everywhere.

* * *

Nico didn’t show up weeks later to that breathtaking scenario he had heard so much in letters, he wouldn’t return home to his family the following months as it was originally expected, much to his sister’s discontent. He didn’t appear later either, not even when people began exploring the waters of the North Atlantic Ocean in search for the missing bodies that were almost unrecognizable in their frozen state, being more bones than actual flesh. Hazel knew it was probably in vain, it had been almost half a year ago, but she wasn’t ready to give up on his brother, not when he hadn’t given up on her all those years ago. She kept searching, looking and scanning for every possible clue, helping some other people who had lost family members and friends that same fateful day. She wasn’t planning on stopping…until she did

Nine days before Christmas, one day before her birthday, uncountable weeks since the last time she had heard the sound of strings echoing around the hallways of the now way too big house. A knock on the door pull her out of her pensive state, moving from the table where a lot of newspapers were being displayed, their permanent location since the middle of April. Once she opened it, her eyes met the glance of a man in a dark suit, a concerned expression on his face, hardened features that hid a message. The other extended a brown leathery bag, black spots on the sides, showing signs of abandonment and careless treatment, assaulted my weather, water and time. The man didn’t have to say anything, she had figured it out on her own: it was his, it had been his brother’s, the item she had gifted him once she was how old his last one had gotten. Hazel felt tears starting to block her vision as she shakily grabbed the ownerless container, giving a weak thanks as she gestured the other to explain the details. He said they had found it a couple of days earlier, tangled between some wooden boards and destroyed machinery, miraculously not having been crushed by the weight of neither of the powerful forces that were prevent it from moving. They hadn’t opened the bag though, it wasn’t their place to do so and it would never will, not it was the time.

That said time never came. The brown haired girl left the item by the side of the door, not moving it from there even when her descendants started complaining about the strange smell that couldn’t leave the object, probably because of how much time it had been lost. They didn’t pressure her to get rid of it, they offered to get it all cleaned up, to inspect the insides and see what could be preserved and what was hopeless in every aspect. She declined, she couldn’t bear to have something else taken away of her, she wanted to have that reminder unaltered until she couldn’t see it anymore. Her wishes were respected, even beyond the expectations placed on them all, no one ever knew what laid inside the old leathery bag.

They didn’t know that if they were to force the locks open they would find some music sheets, wet and almost transparent, a yellowish shade in every corner due to the lack of care and affection they had suffered for years, an old rusty pocket watch with an inscription in another language, some used strings lacking of form and power and, if one were to inspect carefully, a box containing an almost intact negative, a small souvenir the late owner had gotten from his, in every sense last trip.

A lot of things were left unsaid, a lot of things were left undone. Promises were broken, words were unspoked. Some things were never shared, others were left forgotten. The sea always remembers though, and so does the ocean. So if one were to ask, being open to answers, waiting for them carefully, it would tell. It would share what no one ever discovered underneath its waves, where the light barely shines: that where neither the sun or moon could go, there laid peacefully an old violin and an ancient trumpet, side by side, like they were always meant to be.

**Author's Note:**

> [I'm also on tumblr](http://glowing-dimp-as-an-ember.tumblr.com/)


End file.
